Medical College Hospital School of Nursing - Cap and Candle Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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this hospital? After inquiries, I learned that it was an American Red Cross Unit. Miss Seif, the superintendent, came to my bed and inquired as to my condition, asking if the ride from the base hospital had jarred my foot. She told me that since I was the only American soldier in the ward, Miss Meals would be assigned to give me as much attention as possible. Miss McConnell, whose duty it was to cheer up the patients was faithful to her trust. It was indeed a task, for there seemed to be several persons around whom one had to be cheerful. It was hard to humor them when they were sick, but their eyes lighted up at her frequent gifts of cigarettes, and French and American papers. Miss Seif came down the aisle one morning as impersonally as a commanding general at an inspection. She stopped short at my bed, surveying the littered counterpane with some surprise. You know you should not smoke in here, I thoroughly dis- approve of it unless you are on the groundsf' She shook the tobacco crumbs from my bed and cleared my drinking glass of cigarette stubs. Briskly she began to tidy my covers when the Doctor arrived. Dr. Cross, the ward surgeon, was a young man, possessed of dry humor and a passion for perfection of technique, which made dressings a spirited ceremony. There was a place in my foot that Cross always saved until last. XVhen he chose a probe for that he usually started a con- versation to cover his intentions. His assistant, Miss Findler, always knew what to expect, for when he said, small instrument please, she searched the white enamel agony-wagon for a probe, and he began his conversation. It was curious how a probe in the left foot rang a gong in the right side of the brain. Cross looked meaningly at Miss Findler, who was bending over moving basins from the lower deck to the top of the cart, setting rubber tubes on a glass 29

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CLASS PRUPHECY T was in a crowd of wounded officers from many regiments, that I lay waiting to be transported to the hospital at Angers. I had been on the front line since September of ,42 and now I was going back, an invalid. The pain in my foot seemed almost unbearable, but had within the last few minutes been somewhat relieved by the Morphine and Atropine given to me at the base hospital. As the minutes, which seemed like hours, passed, the officers spoke of lands familiar to them and mentioned small wooded streams by remote farmhouses with beautiful names, pronouncing them in Hat American accents. I was longing to see someone fresh from our own American soil, when to my surprise, two officers picked up the stretcher on which I had been placed, and carried me toward the ambulance. Vtfe passed a young American girl, the first I had seen in months. She wore a dark blue corded uniform and carried heavy driving gloves. As the two soldiers lifted me into the ambulance, which was going to transport nie, they called to Miss Abbott for some help. It had been the same girl we had passed a few minutes before, whom I later determined was the driver of the ambulance. The drive to the hospital was a long one, and would have been more so had it not been for the cheery songs and laughter of the driver. XYe had to drive very slowly, because of the wounded, and did not arrive at the hospital at Angers until late that night. The place intoiwhich we were carried was obscured from our vision by the darkness of the night. As we entered the build- ing, the nurse in charge, who was Miss Milnor, came to the soldiers' assistance and directed them to the proper cots. Her kindness and tender care meant much to me through the long dreary nights that followed. The sun had risen high when I awakened. Two nurses were busy on the opposite side of the ward giving the wounded their morning care. This was the first time I had been able to collect my thoughts. XYhy were so many American nurses in Z8

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syringe and opening towels which contained sterile forceps. She was working with such cool unconcern it was apparent she knew her work. Vtfhen he started on my foot again I crammed the pillow into my mouth and shut my eyes and when I opened them again the agony-wagon was at the next bed. Bright and early the next morning Miss Meals and the orderly appeared, bearing a curious black stretcher belonging to the X-Ray Department. They placed me on the stretcher and started toward the X-Ray room. The stretcher had to be borne down a stairway and into a narrow passage with white-washed walls which echoed to the rattle of metal ware and hum of dynamos. The orderly kicked open the door into the radiology unit and set the stretcher down outside the metal screen that walled off the X-Ray lamps. Miss VVeisman, the nurse in charge of the department, unpinned the chart from my blanket. As she directed, they lifted the stretcher and carried it somewhere into a black walled austerity to a metal table where she manipulated sliding bars, plates and switches. I am going to put you under the fluroscope and look at you directly, she said, cutting off the lights and taking my arm. I have good news for you, your foot is O. K. except for one small place where some barbed wire has been hiding. I'll Hash a film and Dr. Cross will remove it early tomorrow morning. Dr. Cross came in and decided to take me immediately to the operating room to remove the wire. In short time I was travelling through the narrow passage-way across the quadrangle to the operating room. Dr. Cross and Miss Ahlstrom were dressed in white caps, gowns and masks, wearing rubber gloves. I knew I was at their mercy and the success of the operation depended on their technique. Miss Musselman gave me the nitrous oxide and after a few struggles I was fast asleep. I did not waken until I was back in bed. Time passed very quickly and my health returned rapidly. I had no more trouble with my foot and on my departure promised to let them know how it progressed. It was indeed a wonderful memory to take to America with me, of the splendid work the American Red Cross was doing in other countries. 30